How to enable and disable Alexa skills

Alexa is the beating heart of the Amazon Echo and the platform upon which all of its abilities are based. Think of it like an operating system with apps that developers can build for it.

In this case the apps are known as skills, and they're what makes your Echo do all kinds of things like turn on your lights, control your WiFi and tell you what's happening in the world today.

Here's how you get new skills and turn them off if you're done with them.

Open the Alexa app on your phone, tablet or in your web browser.

Select skills from the sidebar menu.

Find your desired skill and select it.

Tap on enable to turn it on.

Finding skills for Alexa is as easy as just searching for them. If you know specifically what you're trying to find type its name in the search box and you should see it front of you.

The Alexa app does a decent job at highlighting interesting skills you might want to try, too. When it comes to connecting your smart home devices you'll have specific requirements, but there's a lot out there that isn't related to home automation.

Did you know you can play a version of Runescape on your Amazon Echo?!